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AGENCY:  LBJ
RECORD NUMBER: — 177-10002-10103 ~
RECORD SERIES: NSF, INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS, 1 1/23/63-12/5/63, BOX 1
AGENCY FILE NUMBER :
Document Information
ORIGINATOR: CIA
FROM:
TO:
TITLE: THE PRESIDENT'S INTELLIGENCE CHECKLIST
DATE: — 11/23/1963
PAGES: 15
SUBJECTS :
INTELLIGENCE REPORT
DOCUMENT TYPE: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT!
CLASSIFICATION: — Unclassified ;
RESTRICTIONS: 1B; Mandatory Review Material
CURRENT STATUS: = Redact
DATE OF LASTREVIEW: — 12/12/1997
OPENING CRITERIA :
COMMENTS : DOC. #1

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(Security Classification)

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Jenacler Cuddelack [IBS Liban Wiy [is

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Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions

TOP SECRET

(Security Classification)


—

THE PRESIDENT’S
INTELLIGENCE CHECKLIST

ISSUED BY THE ;
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

23 NOVEMBER 1963
TOP SECRET

1. South Vietnam a, Vietnamese Communist ef-
' forts- to discredit the new Saigon
regime stayed in high gear this
week,

b. The number of armed attacks
was off from the high of the previous
week but still some 50% above the -
year's weekly average. ;

c. These attacks have been,
for the most part, small-scale efforts
directed against the government's
paramilitary forces in the villages.
.They have been designed more for
their psychological impact than for
immediate military gain.

d. <A high volume of messages
on Viet Cong military and political
communications nets indicates a prob-
able continuation of this effort.

e. The new government is re-
sponding by stepping up its own
military operations, It is also
setting about the hard job of -re-
vamping the Diem government .apparatus
and harnessing broader popular sup-
port for the war effort.

ff. The generals have been
dealing fairly effectively with

(Cont'd) -

For The President Only - Top Secret

VENEZUELA

—+-+++—+ Selected railroad

200 Miles

200 Kilometers


2.

Venezuela

their new responsibilities. There
are, however, a few signs of dissen-
sion within this group and between
it and civilian politicians.

g. One of the more ambitious
and troublesome figures is the able
but opportunistic General Ton That
Dinh, the new Minister of Security.
He has been travelling about the
country spreading the idea that the
coup was largely his doing and seems
bent on developing his own independ-
ent base of power. He is a man to
watch.

h, The new regime has also
embarked on a purge of high military
officers who sided with Diem during
the Buddhist crisis-and failed to
get on the right side soon enough.
(INTERCEPTS)

a. The death toll from the
terrorist outburst in Caracas last
Tuesday and Wednesday now stands at
about 30.

b. This is the high water mark
thus far in the campaign of the
Castro-supported Communist extremists
to disrupt the national elections a
week from tomorrow.

(Cont'd)

For The President Only - Top Secret

ec. The Betancourt government
has struck back hard, Its new uni-
fied command over the security forces,
set up at US urging, passed this
initial test with flying colors.

ad. At least 500 extremists
were arrested and the round-up is
still going on. Their removal will
hamper the Communist drive against
elections in major cities like Caracas.

e. We now expect the elections
to be held on schedule, a consider-
able achievement under the circum-
stances. The elections will be fol-
lowed, however, by a Communist ef-
fort to prevent the March inaugura-
tion of the victor,

£. The rub here is that none
of the presidential candidates com-
mands President Betancourt's con-
Siderable assets for dealing success-
fully with the harsh realities of
Venezuelan politics. The constitu-
tion prevents Betancourt from suc-
ceeding himself,

g. In the background, as
always, looms the military, which
could intervene if the president-
elect shows signs of being soft on
communism.

For The President Only - Top Secret

“SAN “JULIAN :

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3, USSR-Cuba

a. In the past week we inter-

' cepted Cuban military messages which

show that Cuban interpreters are now
posted at several surface-to-air mis-
Sile (SAM) sites on the island,

b. We think this means that
on-site training of Cubans has begun
on schedule, Field training is to
last six months, after which the
SAM system may be turned over to
Castro.

c. In the past month some
1,500 Soviets arrived in Cuba. Most
of these were probably SAM experts,
sent to monitor the training.

d. Prior to their coming, we
had detected no more than a few
hundred Soviet military personnel
entering Cuba since the October
crisis last year,

e,. We estimate that at least
15,000, and probably closer to
18,000, have been withdrawn in the
intervening 13 months, leaving, very
roughly, 4,000 to 7,000, Those re-
maining are for the most part ad-
visors whose main functions are to
train and supervise Cubans in the
use of weapons turned over to then,

(Cont'd)

For The President Only - Top Secret

Autobahn “Road
Canal - .  ° Air Corridor

Control Points for Allied Traffic:
A Soviet A Allied

Interzonal Border Crossing Points:
A East LA West

i sT¢ “—" MLES}

Railroad

—

ans —
an) KILOMETERS. 100
a

f. All Soviet weapons intro-
duced into Cuba last year have been
withdrawn or turned over to the
Cubans. The only significant excep-
tion is the SAM systen.

(Includes INTERCEPTS)

OO a. We have had an indication
that Soviet harassment of Allied ac-
cess routes to West Berlin will shift
this weekend to the air corridors,

4. Berlin

b. The Soviet man at the Ber-
lin air traffic control center told.
the Allied representatives yesterday
that Soviet transports would be using
the air corridors for brief flights
during the next five weekends.

. c. Moscow has tried on a num-
ber of past occasions to assert its
right to restrict Allied use of the
air corridors. In early 1962, the
Soviets attempted to'reserve "blocks"
‘of air space for their own use. They
have since demanded that Western
flights stay between stipulated al-
titudes, that we file flight plans
in advance and provide prior notice
of border-crossing times.

(Cont'd)

For The President Only - Top Secret

5.

Iraq-Syria-
UAR

d. This sort of harassment
stopped in the spring of 1962 when
Soviet leaders became convinced
that the US was interested in a
serious discussion of a Berlin settle-
ment. Moscow may hope that the
threat of more of this sort of har-
assment will Jog the US into talks
on. Berlin. a

a. It now appears that Presi-
dent Arif's role in last Monday's
coup in Baghdad may have been vir-
tually that of a bystander,

b. According to our Latest in-
formation, Arif was wakened early
that morning and given five minutes
to join up. Tahir Yahya, now prime
minister, was reportedly the orga-
nizer.

c. Whatever Arif's role may
have been, the coup was primarily
an effort by the Iraqi Army to cur~
tail the activities of the extreme
wing of the Baath Party. The Baath
is an Arab nationalist political or-
ganization, active throughout the
Arab world, which has been ruling
Iraq and Syria.

(Cont'd)

For The President Only - Top Secret

d. The coup group has not
thrown all Baathists out of the
government; there are party members
in the new cabinet.

e. Syrian Baathists have wel-
comed this retention of their Iraqi
brothers. Their attitude springs
from the recognition that the Baath
in Syria cannot stay afloat without
support from Iraq. Even so, we hear
talk of coup plotting in Damascus.

f. The reaction of Nasir's
Egypt, which passionately desires
to see the Baath go under, has been
exactly the opposite. Cairo has been
backing off its all-out support for
the coup ever since the new cabinet
was announced,
(Includes INTERCEPTS)

For The President Only - Top Secret

we ee ey

Lew

TOP SECRET |
DINAR


NOTES

USSR New activity involving Soviet range instru-—

mentation ships in the Pacific appears to be forth-

- coming. Three instrumentation ships left Petropav-

lovsk 12 days ago and are apparently headed for the
more distant Pacific impact area, 6,500 miles from
Tyuratam, We are looking for extended range ICBM
tests but we do not exclude a space event. There
has so far been no announcement closing the area.
(INTERCEPTS)

Congo-USSR Soviet embassy personnel have not yet
Teft Leopoldville, but their departure is expected
momentarily. They were ordered out of the country
after the Congolese turned up good documentary evi-
dence of their complicity in anti-government plots.
One of the items taken off a Soviet diplomat the
other day was a Letter from an anti-Adoula leader
now in Brazzaville asking for funds and arms to over-
throw the Leopoldville government.

Britain The Labor Party scored again in the Dundee
West by-election Thursday, increasing its 1959
majority of 719 to a thumping 4,955. Heartened by
this, Labor is now pushing for general elections at
once. Prime Minister Home is not likely to accede.

Ecuador The military junta which has run Ecuador
Since July may be about to come unstuck. We have a
report that one of the less savory members of the
group, air force Colonel Freiles, will try to take
over full control this weekend. We are not sure

of the reliability of this report, but Freiles is
known to have been making motions in this direction,

(Cont'd)

For The President Only - Top Secret

SOVIET EARTH SATELLITE VEHICLES - COSMOS SERIES

1962-1963
PERIGEE ORBITAL
(N.M,) INCLINATION _ STATUS

SECRET 1962

APPROXIMATE TIME] LAUNCH | PERIOD | APOGEE
SITE | (MINUTES)|—(NM,)
6.35 529

OF LAUNCH(GMT)

Cosmos 1 12:00:00 {EST.) Decayed
(Sputnik 13) 16 Mar '62 Kapustin Yor 98. 7 49° 25 May '62
Cosmos 2 1715318 Peeayed
(Sputnik 14) 6 Apr '62 Kapustin Yor 102.5 842 115 49° 19-20 Aug '63
Cosmos 3 0400:12 Decayed

(Sputnik 15) 24 Apr '62 Kapustin Yor 93.8 389 124 4g? 17 Oct.62

Cosmos 4 1002:56 Recovered
(Sputnik 16) 26 Apr '62 Tyuratem 90.6 178 161 65° 29 Apr 62
Cosmos 5 * 0259:49 Decayed
(Sputnik 17) 28 May '62 Kopustin Yor 102.75 865 10 49° 2 May '63
Cosmos 6 1600;00 (EST.) Decayed
(Sputnik 18) 30 June '62 Kopustin Yor 90.6 194 148 49° 8 Sept '62

Cosmos 7 0918:30 Recovered
(Sputnik 19) 28 July *82 Tyuratom 90.1 199 13 65° 1 Aug 62

Cosmos 8 0500:00 (EST.)
(Sputnik 22) 18 Aug 62 —-Kopustin Yar 92.93 326 138 49° Decayed

Cosmos 9 * 0940:00 5 Recovered
(Sputnik 26) 2 Sept '62 Tyuratam 90.9 191 163 65 1 Oct 62
Cosmos 10 0900:01 (EST.) Recovered
(Spitnik 27) 17 Oct '82 Tyuratam 90.2 205 113 65° 21 Oct '62

Cosmos 11 ~~. 0655:00 (EST.) Decayed
(Sputnik 28)" 20 Oct *62 Kapustin Yor 96.1 497 132 49° 6 “tore "63
* Cosinos 12 .._* 0924:40 . oe Recovered
‘Tyuratom - 90.45 . 65°". 30 Dec '62

L(Spumik 32) °° ° — 22-Dec '62
CFE 1963

Cosmos 13. | : 08:30:00 , . : Loy ° , Recovered
(Sputnik 34) 2} Mar '63 _ Tyuratam 7 ms “ 6458" “29 Mar '63
Cosmos 14: a 1059359 : : : - Decayed
(Sputnik 36) 13. Apr 163. Kapustin Yor : ; 49° 57" 29 Aug '63
Cosmos 15 . 0829:58 : Recovered
(Sputnik 37) 22 Apr '63 Tyuratam 65° 27 April '63
Cosmas 16° 0850:00 (EST.) Recovered
(Sputnik 38)... 28 Apr.363- Tyuratam . - : 65° 01" 5 May '63
Cosmos 17+ 0300:00 (EST.) . . : In orbit, silent
(Sputnik 39) ¢ "22 May '63 Kapustin Yor . . 4g9o net " Means
Cosmos 18 ~ 4638307" - “ : oo ". Recovered
(Sputnik 40) :-. 24 Moy '63 © -Tyyratam . . - : 65°01" 2 June '63
Cormes 19 + # —0600:00 (EST.) . te : - In orbit,
(Sputnik 43) * , . 6 Aug 463 Kapostin Yor . ; “* 49° ~ 1. transmitting

Cosmos:20 oa -  Q929:58 , : . ; Recovered
(Sputnik 44) 18 Oct 63° Tyuratam 89. : 6 26 Oct '63

Failure 24 Oct'63 Kapustin Yar

Cosmos 21 0623:39
(Sputnik 46) 1 Nov '63

Cosmos 22 1034:25
(Sputnik 47) 16 Nov '63

Tyuratam

Recovered

Tyuretam 22 Nov '63


Thailand Prime Minister Sarit, who suffers from

an xpcurable liver disease, is failing, Doctors

attending him, including one of our own, give him

no. more than six months more. Sarit has attempted
to arrange for an orderly succession when he does

go. The chances of this are not good; Thai poli-

ticians and military figures are already Jostling

one another for position.

USSR Cosmos 22, launched a week ago, was recovered

_yesterday. It is the eleventh unmanned satellite to

be recovered. All recoverable satellites have been
launched from Tyuratam, the main Soviet missile test
center, and recovered after three to ten days aloft.
A series of non-recoverable satellites has been
fired from Kapustin Yar.

(See Chart)

(INTERCEPTS)

For The President Only - Top Secret

